My Unconventional Path to Learning Five Languages

People often assume that mastering multiple languages means you're some kind of prodigy. Honestly, while a bit of talent helps, my experience proves that hard work, the right environment, and serious motivation are the real MVPs. Here’s a messy, honest look at how I picked up Chinese, English, French, Turkish, and Japanese.

Chinese

Chinese is my mother tongue, but since I spent most of my life outside of Taiwan, I was only proficient in speaking and listening. The first time I properly attended school here was high school, and it was hard as hell. Not just subjects like Math, but Chinese itself. Literature, proverbs, and essay writing were my absolute pain points. I barely worked my way through graduation.

I even tried for some big government national exams later on, but the essays written by hand, of course, tripped me up every time. I really wish our system would modernize! We’re supposed to be a 'Tech-Island', yet we’re still forcing handwriting for official documents? I mean, who is using 100% handwriting for official letters these days?

Failing those exams was rough, but it was a big lesson in how environment shapes literacy, even in your native language.

English

I never had a formal, systematic curriculum for English. My mom taught me basics, sure, but games were the true teachers. I was maybe five or six when I started playing Pokémon on my Game Boy. Later, while in Belgium, where English didn't start until middle school, I was lucky enough to have native English-speaking friends on MSN, which helped a ton.

My university courses in Türkiye (Political Science/International Relations) were all in English, which forced me to beef up my academic reading and writing. I ended up getting a 7.0 on the IELTS and, surprisingly, a 985 on the new TOEIC without prep. For better speaking practice, seriously, try playing something like CSGO (CS2) or joining conversations in VRChat. It works.

French and Turkish

• French: I learned this during my stay in Belgium, from 6th grade to 1st year of high school. I spent almost a year in special foreigner classes at L'Athénée royal d'Evere. Since I didn't have many friends at first, I just spent a massive amount of time studying and memorizing words. The hard work paid off, and I was often a top student once I transitioned to regular classes. Back in Taiwan, I kept it up with classes at NTNU and passed the B2 DELF exam.
• Turkish: I took eight months of language classes (TÖMER) in Istanbul before university and passed the B2 level. Turkish is quite interesting. Its grammar feels a lot like Japanese. Plus, it borrows heavily from Arabic, Persian, English, and French, which gave me some easy entry points since I knew some of those languages. Still struggled, though it was much harder for me than for the Arabs or Central Asians!

Japanese

Japanese was also around me from childhood. I played Japanese Pokémon too! I remember trying to figure out the Braille code for Regirock in Pokémon Emerald and having to ask my grandmother (who learned Japanese during the colonial era) for help with the context. Games and anime helped me a lot with listening and reading. Post-COVID, I had some free time, bought some books, and passed the N3 JLPT. Next time, I plan to leverage AI learning tools to test my limits.

Final Thoughts

Learning a new language gets exponentially easier after the first few because you start seeing shared logic, grammar patterns, or similar words. The environment is everything—it's how kids learn their mother tongue, by observing the context and timing of words. For me, simply memorizing definitions never worked. I need vibrant images, videos, or real-life events to connect to the words, that’s the only way I can actually recall and use them correctly.